Java or Cobol

[Dan_AlfaRomeo]

Hi guys,
I'm about to make a choice for my career and I want to know your opinion about it.
I just graduated CS in Romania and I now have 2 distinct employment possibilities:
1. Junior Java Developer- one of the clasic paths for the fresh CS graduates
2. Junior Cobol Developer- a more risky but interesting (for me)choice
I need to know more about job opportunities and /or possibilities for MS or MIS in the US--for the long term.
I know enough to start working in any of this 2 and my only concern is the issue mentioned above.
Thanks

[Alex Edwards]

Most companies that I know that use Cobol are moving towards Java.

I'd guess that being, strictly a Java developer would be much more ideal in America, though I do not know about anywhere else.

Then again if you want to companies migrating from Cobol to Java you would probably be an ideal candidate. Just a possibility.

[jwenting]

Cobol will give you a stable career you can stick around in without learning anything else until you retire.

[murderotica]

Cobol will give you a stable career you can stick around in without learning anything else until you retire.

Seriously?

[Salem]

Cobol has a 40 year head start over Java.

Gartner Group reports that 200 billion lines of Cobol code existed as of last year, with an expected growth of 5 billion lines of code per year for the next four years
Nor is that amount of code going to go away overnight.

As the same report goes on to show, the code is still there, but all the people who wrote it are approaching retirement.

Massive code base + diminishing pool of coders = write your own paycheck